Law college of West Bengal, India
Surendranath Law College (Bengali :সুরেন্দ্রনাথ আইন কলেজ) formerly known as Ripon College) is an postgraduate law college affiliated with the University of Calcutta. It was established in Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal in 1885 by a trust formed by the nationalist leader, scholar and educationist Surendranath Banerjee, a year after he founded Surendranath College.[1] This is now regarded one of the oldest Law college of British India.[2][3]
History
The first name of the college was Presidency School in 1882,[4] when it was handed over to Sri Banerjee on 1 January 1884. That same year the Post-Graduate Department of Law was extended, and it was affiliated to the Calcutta University as an independent professional college in 1885. Banerjee renamed the school the Presidency Institution and brought it to the status of a college affiliated to the F.A. standard. The name was later changed to Ripon College, named after the British Viceroy George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon.[5][6] The name was changed again in 1949 to honour its founder Sri Surendranath Banerjee.[7][8] The women's section of the college was founded in 1931 by Mira Datta Gupta, its first principal. Swami Vivekananda delivered his first address in Calcutta from the rostrum of this college on his return from Chicago after his famous deliverance at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1893.[9] In 1911, Rabindranath Tagore read out at this college one of his essays dealing with the twin subjects of separatism to be found among many of countrymen and national integration.[10][11] This college was recognised by the University Grants Commission in 1972.[11] The college now offers LLM courses.[citation needed]
